Red House Media

RedHouseMedia unveiled its new softball team today, the RedHouseReds.

The team, formerly known as the Wildcats, is now sponsored by Aaron Hautala, owner of RedHouseMedia. In the offseason, Aaron offered to underwrite the team I had been managing for the past several years.

After about six years of being sponsored by various groups, it’s great to have all of our team’s underwriting taken care of so we can just focus on softball. I think Aaron is excited about playing
the “Jerry Jones” owner role. I can picture him pacing around behind the dugout while we are playing a game.

The RedHouseReds partner sponsors include: Pro Print of Duluth and The Garage Promotional Group.

It’s a great way to spend a summer night. My family along with many of the other players’ families all come out to watch the game. Our wives visit and the kids all run around playing. In the past we have occasionally grilled hotdogs between games and had team parties. I think that is something we
would like to expand on this year. I would love to see more friends and families at the games. We are currently thinking through additional promos or events to make the games even more fun.

Minor league or farm teams do a lot of extra creative events during a season. I realize we are just a
local softball team, but let me remind you that as an extension of RedHouseMedia, the RedHouseReds are just as unconventional by design.  Who says we cant have as much fun as the farm teams?

So, friends and followers of RedHouseMedia, consider this your invitation to join the team for a game. Every game is a knot-hole game (free admission). The team plays in Brainerd every Tuesday night at Memorial Park/Mills Field. Opening night is a double-header. We’ll play this Tuesday, May 4th,

at 6 p.m. on field #3 (Near the Lunkers’ ballpark.) and then again on field #2 at 7 p.m. To follow the team more closely visit the blog at: redhousereds.blogspot.com or View the season schedule now.

See you on at the fields.

I woke up on Monday April 12 upset with the Twins organization. That day was the Twins home opener in Target field. But the game time was set for 3:10 pm. For all of us that are hardworking folks that have tasks and projects to take care of at work, that is a problematic start time. I had an all day meeting scheduled with Aaron and I don’t have TiVo.

I am a self proclaimed Twins historian. I have 4 generations of baseball fever running through my blood. My grandfather was a member of the architectural firm that built the old met stadium. He was also a part time usher at the met just so he could get paid to watch games. My dad is a lifelong fan. There’s myself, and now my boys. (The first nook that I popped into my newborn son’s mouth was a Twins branded pacifier.) So the 3:10 start time was rubbing me the wrong way to say the least. This was not the kind of game I like to miss.

Aaron and I got an early start that day because our meeting was up in Walker. So I was told… Just as we were starting Aaron handed me the project folder to review on our drive. When I opened the folder two tickets for the game stared up at me. It took several seconds for me to wrap my head around what was going on. It turns out Aaron decided to buy some tickets and bring me along to the game as an appreciation gift for the several years I have been on board at RedHousMedia. (3 years.) I don’t jump up and down screaming and shouting, (ever) but I was inside!

After stopping home to swap my dress attire for my hat and twins shirt we departed for the next stage in Twins history. The ballpark is everything they have hyped it up to be. I have been to many ballparks and Target field is better than any, save for Wrigley. But you are kind of talking apples and oranges when you compare the two parks.

Most of the Twins greats were on hand for the day. At one point in the concourses we passed by Al Newman, Bert, Jack Morris, Jim Kaat, Jim Perry and Frank Viola. Aaron and I just looked at each-other as they all walked by. Wow. Puckett’s statue was also unveiled that day. Aaron and I are pictured above doing the classic Twins logo handshake.

We sat 7 rows up from 3rd base. Not to shabby seats. It was cool to see the sun fall on the hats of that many Twins fans. I had never been to the old met so It was great to see a grounds crew prepare the field for a game here in Minnesota. It was great to have the breeze on your face. It was great to smell all the incredible ballpark food in the breeze. It was great that the Twins won!

Thanks Aaron. What a classy move for an employer. Thanks for the entire trip.

Dain

I was working on a project the other day and stumbled on a remarkable similarity. The aforementioned project involved researching through some old newspapers circa early 20s through to the 60s and beyond for Deerwood Bank. (Who, by the way, just turned 100) I often had to laugh as I flipped through the pages at the topics that found their way into the local newspaper. I was amazed the seemingly meaningless or trivial information that not only made the publication but often found front cover ink. (See actual clippings above.)  The blurb about Stanley stood out to me. Honestly I thought, how is this newsworthy. We’re not even talking about the full time depot operator. Stan is the backup! Or another entry from around the 30’s about the Casey’s of Ironton and their new car purchase. Not really any of our business I thought.

It seems like I have had these exact same comments within the last few days. What was it that I was just reading… And then it hit me. Oh yeah, facebook.

I turns out we are no different today than those a generation or two generations  or even three generations ago. Yes our choice in media has changed. But we all still have the same need to stay connected in some way to those we know. Let me take the previous entries from the newspapers and put them into a modern example of what they might look like.

There are and have been a lot of questions recently regarding how to harness facebook, twitter or whatever your social media of choice is.  It seems to me that it’s not about figuring out the media, but knowing the reason for our needs. We have always found the need to communicate and connect with our friends family and those in our community. Today we simply have the ability to do so on a broader scale. We can stay in close contact with friends across the state, family on the other side of the country and our community can now be as broad as the globe.

We have changed much in the past few years, yet have we changed at all? The more things change… the more they stay the same.

Let’s talk about one of our favorite words here at the RedHouseMedia creative thinking multiplex. It’s a phrase, I guess, if you want to be technical… “Return on investment”. (ROI) A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment.

One of our primary purposes at RedHouseMedia is to help our clients reach their highest return on investment. I had an example of this literally “crop up” at home this past fall.

After a long spring and summer of toiling over a small plot of vegetables this ROI phrase was instantly made abundantly real for me. Carrots are a risky vegetable to grow, you really have no way of knowing what kind of crop to expect until you are actually pulling them out of the ground. As you can see by the photo provided, I lost the return on investment game in my garden this year. Big time! Never have I put so much effort into a project and received a lower return on investment.

If you ever feel like you struggle over the rising prices at the grocery store, try to grow your own food for a year. Now whenever I walk by an enormous cluster of carrots in the produce section I am nearly compelled to point out what a great deal they are to other shoppers. They could charge $25 for a hand-full of carrots and I would be just fine with that.

Time is money and at RedHouseMedia we are constantly weighing the return on investment of both.

Dain

I’ll admit it. I loved the television show from my childhood; The Jeffersons. Not sure how many episodes I watched throughout my younger years but the one thing I recall for certain is dancing and singing along to the opening theme song.

Today has marked another moving on up day for myself here at RedHouse. Finally, after a few months of remodeling and waiting patiently for the right time I’ve officially moved on up to the 3rd (some say 2.5) floor of the Franklin Arts Center to my new Loft Studio.

A 14mm view of my new loft studio.

Why is this a big deal. Well, it’s time. Our business has been blessed with growth, with opportunities, with great clients, great designers, and in a few weeks, our new media coordinator, Now I find myself needing to focus more every day on what’s next. Next not meaning today, not tomorrow, but a year from now, three years from now, the year 2020. With eager anticipation of what is to come, I sit back and think “what could be.” With excitement we continue our march into 2010 and look forward to the continuation of painting the town red.

Attached here is the original Jeffersons theme song, and two creative fellas who know how to rock it out. I completely understand their enthusiasm, and feel free to bust a move yourself.

Here’s to a great Friday, and an even better weekend!

Aaron

A few weeks back we had the opportunity to partner with Mills Automotive Group of Brainerd, MN in the creation of their Accessories Video which visually explains to their new and returning customers how easy and fun it is to accessorize their new vehicle online. Mills features a wonderful interactive website that allows customers to customize their vehicle online with the simple click of the button.

It’s awesome. I wish this was around a few years ago when I purchased my F-150!

To create motion and depth in the video we brought in the Steady-Cam allowing Marissa to walk through the video introduction to create an interesting visual opening and a warm welcome. We also filmed the video on location within Mills Ford in Baxter to allow Marissa to be within the Mills brand throughout the entire video.

This was a great opportunity for Mills to create a video “thank-you” message to personally thank each and every customer that they do business with. A nice touch, and a great educational piece for their accessories service line.